1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wall-mounted microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted microwave oven including a fixing member having an improved structure adapted to fixedly mount an oven body to a wall in a confined space in which the microwave oven is to be installed, thereby achieving a reduction in manufacturing costs and convenient and simple manufacturing and installing processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a wall-mounted microwave oven is mounted to a wall in a kitchen space over a complex cooling appliance provided with gas oven ranges. Such a wall-mounted microwave oven not only performs a cooking function using microwaves, similarly to that of general microwave ovens, but also performs a function for externally exhausting fumes, smoke or the smell of food rising from another cooling appliance such as a gas oven or an electric oven arranged beneath the microwave oven during cooking of the food.
In such a wall-mounted microwave oven, microwaves emitted from a magnetron irradiate food to repeatedly change the arrangement of water molecules in the food, thereby causing the food to be cooked by frictional heat of those water molecules. In the wall-mounted microwave oven, an exhaust fan is installed to vent fumes, smoke and food smell rising from a cooking appliance arranged beneath the microwave oven to the exterior during a cooking operation.
The configuration of such a wall-mounted microwave oven will be described in more detail. Similarly to general microwave ovens, this wall-mounted microwave oven includes an oven body defining the appearance of the wall-mounted microwave oven, and a cooking chamber and an electric element chamber partitioned in the interior of the oven body, so as to cook food in the cooking chamber using microwaves. Exhaust passages are formed between facing walls of the oven body and cooking chamber and between facing walls of the oven body and electric element chamber, respectively. An exhaust fan is connected to upper ends of the exhaust passages. With this configuration, the wall-mounted microwave oven can suck fumes, smoke and food smell rising beneath the oven body through the exhaust passages in accordance with an operation of the exhaust fan, and then vent them to the exterior.
The wall-mounted microwave oven also includes a fixing plate for fixedly mounting the oven body to a wall in a kitchen space. Upon mounting the oven body to the wall, the fixing plate is first mounted to the wall at a desired position where the oven body is to be installed. Thereafter, the oven body is coupled, at a lower end thereof, to the fixing plate. The oven body is then fixed, at an upper end thereof, to an outer bottom surface of a sideboard installed on the wall or to a separate bracket fixed to the wall. Thus, the installation of the wall-mounted microwave oven is completed.
However, such a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven has various problems. That is, the fixing plate used in the conventional wall-mounted microwave oven is manufactured to have the same size as that of the oven body, in order to accurately install the oven body at a desired position on the wall, taking into consideration the fact that the oven body is relatively heavy, as disclosed in Korean Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. 1998-030344. For this reason, there is an increase in the manufacturing costs of the fixing plate. Furthermore, there is inconvenience in the processes of manufacturing, transporting, and installing the fixing plate.